In the current information age, information technology (IT) tools are extensively used, typically in a network environment, in enterprises and other organizations in order to facilitate output, communication and/or processing of information, such as documents and data, and there are often discussions of the desirableness of a paperless society. Notwithstanding the aforementioned discussions, there remains a great need by users of computers and other terminal devices (including tablets and mobile phones) for printing functionality. Therefore, devices having printing functionality, such as printers, copiers, multi-function devices (MFDs), etc., continue to play a significant role in information technology (IT) at home and at work.
Due to an increasing number of devices in the network environment and an increasing number of users who use such devices, IT administrators who manage and oversee the network environment need to manage access of the devices (or particular settings of such devices) allowed to the users.
In a conventional print management system, in order to allow one user to have access to certain functions of a printer while not allowing another user to access one or more of said functions (such as color printing), the IT administrator would need to create two separate printers (i.e. printer objects in the system), one with color printing function, and the other with only monochrome printing function, even though each such printer represents the same physical printer. Depending on the size of the network and the number of users, such procedure may become very cumbersome to the IT administrator.
Thus, there is a need for an improved approach for IT administrators to manage print services provided in a network environment.